WordPress Hosting vs Shared Hosting: Pros and Cons

There are many options for your web hosting needs, so it’s good to do your due diligence. Find the difference between WordPress hosting vs shared hosting here.

There are now 455 million websites across the world using the WordPress content management system. Known for its flexible approach and ease of use, it is a great choice for anyone building a new site. However, it may not be for everyone, so how do you know if it is right for you?

When you start to build a website you will need to choose a place to store the files and code. This is known as hosting. Read on as we discuss WordPress hosting vs shared hosting.

What Are Shared Hosting Services?

With shared hosting services, your website will share its resources with others. This makes them very affordable. However, if other sites are using up resources then fewer are available for you.

Advantages of Shared Hosting

Shared hosting comes with several advantages. The most important are listed below.

Low Costs

When you build a website with shared hosting, your costs are low. Some hosting services offer price plans from as low as $3 per month. This allows you to run a website on a budget, making it ideal for blogs and personal websites.

Host More Than One Website

Upon opening a shared hosting package, you may be able to have more than one website for the same price. Though you will have to pay for extra domains, this can be a great way to open multiple blogs.

It Is Not Limited to WordPress Developed Sites

With shared hosting, you can choose from a range of content management systems and website builders. When you choose WordPress hosting your CMS is fixed.

Disadvantages of Shared Hosting

Despite the low cost, shared hosting does come with disadvantages. This may make it unsuitable for some purposes.

Performance Issues

As you are sharing a server with other websites, you have very little say over how the space gets used. If lots of websites end up on the server or they start to use up more resources, your website will suffer. You can’t do much about this and it may harm your SEO or website traffic.

Lack of Admin Access

If you want to perform administration tasks, you may find your access restricted. The use of software that is different to that offered by the support of your hosting service may be prohibited. Some tasks may be impossible to perform because of this.

Security

There may be more security issues with shared hosting. When file permission settings are configured incorrectly, other users on the server may access your files. If cyber criminals manage to get into the other websites, then they could get access to yours via this method.

Your site also won’t receive automatic updates and backups. This means you may become susceptible to malware if you forget to update yourself.

What Is WordPress Hosting?

WordPress hosting is a type of service designed to optimize sites built using the content management system. Within this are several subcategories such as cloud, VPS or shared WordPress hosting. However, managed is the most common that you will come across.

Advantages of WordPress Hosting

WordPress hosting has several advantages. If you are planning to use it as your main content management system then it should be given serious consideration.

Easy Setup

Part of WordPress’s popularity is down to its ease of use and setup, which increases with specialized hosting. With a range of themes and plugins on offer, you can have your site up and running extremely quickly. Many hosts also offer an easy one-click installation to get you up and running.

Excellent Support

Your host should provide great customer support regardless. However, if you decide to give web design a go yourself you will find a lot of advice and help online. As it is a free system that many people have modified, you can find solutions to almost all problems with a quick Google search.

Improved Performance

When you have managed WordPress hosting, the themes and plugins you use will be optimized to work efficiently on the website. Performance-enhancing add-ons like CDN networks may also be available. All of this can increase speed and efficiency, which has a direct impact on your SEO score.

Enhanced Security

When WordPress plugins and themes are not updated, they can become a threat to security. With shared and VPS hosting you are responsible for any attacks on your website and its contents. However, managed WordPress hosting will have security elements in places like malware scans and backups to keep you safe.

Disadvantages of WordPress Hosting Options

While there are not many, there are some disadvantages to WordPress hosting that means it is not suitable for everyone. The most important ones are below.

Expense

The increase in service and performance does come at a cost. Managed WordPress hosting services will start at around $20 a month, much more than shared plans. If you want added features like speed and storage, then you will need to pay more.

Inflexible

Although WordPress itself is very flexible, there are some restraints with managed hosting. Firstly, some themes and third-party plugins may be restricted by hosting providers.

This is because they are often susceptible to security breaches and performance. A limited pool of plugins could’ve all you have to choose from.

You are also limited to using the WordPress CMS. You cant use others such as Magento or Joomla on your package.

No Emails or Domains

It is very rare that managed hosting services will provide you with an email or domain name. You will have to register a domain elsewhere. For emails, you can sign up with a third-party provider.